ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, December 7, 1995             TAG: 9512070072
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-4  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON

OCTOBER SET AS START OF PULLOUT PERRY: TIMING ISN'T DICTATED BY '96 ELECTIONS

President Clinton plans to begin bringing U.S. troops home from Bosnia next October, the month before the presidential elections, Defense Secretary William Perry said Wednesday.

The timing is dictated by military considerations, Perry said, not political concerns.

Perry made his comments as Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole sought to craft a resolution of conditional support for the White House plan to send 20,000 American troops to Bosnia to help enforce a U.S.-brokered peace accord struck last month in Dayton, Ohio.

Dole is insisting that the United States agree to take the lead in providing arms and training to Bosnian government forces before U.S. troops leave Bosnia next year. The White House wants other countries to do the job.

Clinton is sending his top Balkans envoy, Richard Holbrooke, to the capitals of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia this weekend to try to hammer out details surrounding that issue and others concerning the implementation of the Dayton agreement before it is formally signed in Paris on Dec. 14.

Within days of the formal signing, the first large groups of American forces will deploy to Bosnia, beginning a mission the White House insists will be completed in one year.

``Prudence says that we're not going to pull them out on the last day of the 12th month,'' Perry said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. ``The last three months is the phasing out of the force, and they will come down gradually over those last three months.''

Asked whether that meant the pullout would begin in October, Perry replied, ``Yes,'' though he said those plans could change slightly, depending upon conditions on the ground at the time.

LENGTH: Short :   44 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. Members of the 54th Quartermaster Company practice 
          on the rifle range at Fort Lee, near Petersburg. The mortuary unit 
          is on alert for deployment to Bosnia.